McHugh makes last four in Mexico tournament

Ian MacLean

Bearsden’s Aidan McHugh reached his fifth ITF tournament semi-final of the year last week at the Yucatan Cup in Mexico.

The 17-year-old, seeking his second title of the season, opened with a 6-4 6-0 victory over Romania’s Cezar Cretu and then defeated Sumit Sarkar of the USA 7-5 7-6.

South Africa’s Philip Henning was despatched with another straight sets win - 6-1 6-3 - in the last 16.

In his quarter-final with Argentina’s Thiago Agustin Tirante, Aidan dropped his first set of the tournament when Tirante took it 7-6.

However he bounced back to win the second 6-4 before his opponent retired.

That put him through to a semi-final with Taipei’s Chun Hsin Tseng, but there his run ended as he went down 6-1 6-4.

However it has still been a successful year for the youngster who has risen to 56 in the world junior rankings.

He won the CLTK Cup in Prague in January - beating Strathblane’s Hamish Stewart in the final - and also reached the semi-finals of ITF events in Germany, Switzerland and Canada as well as last week’s Mexican tournament.

And in the Grand Slams he reached the last 16 of Junior Wimbledon.

Aidan also took part in the doubles in Mexico, but he and English partner George Loffhagen went out in the first round, losing 6-3 6-4 to American pair Govind Nanda and Emilio Nava.

This week Aidan moved on to the Eddie Herr Tournament in Bradenton, Florida, but his interest in the singles ended early as he went out 7-5 7-6 to Bulgaria’s Adrian Andreev in the first round.

However he and Russia’s Timofey Skatov were still in the doubles as we went to press. having defeated Lleyon Cronje (South Africa) and Sheil Kotecha (Kenya) in the opening round.